The Parkerverse
by Friendly fanfiction writer
Summary: Between the scenes from Spider-Man: Homecoming, flashbacks to Peter Parker's origin story, and the MCU seen through the eyes of Ned and MJ in an action packed adventure to discover more about our favorite friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!
1. Chapter 1

_Hey guys! I started off my fic' from a scene from homecoming, so this chapter is kind of like a prologue. We'll be jumping around in time throughout the fic', so don't forget to check the date at the beginning of each champter! Enjoy!_

* * *

"Do you lay eggs?" Ned asked, staring at the pile of rubble that used to be Mr Delmar's Deli-grocery.

"What? No!" Peter laughed nervously, still thinking about what Ned had said just before. _I could have died. _A shiver went down his spine.

It had been almost a year since the spider bite that had given him his powers. Almost a year since his Uncle Ben had been killed in a mugging. Almost a year since he had started fighting crime as the friendly neighborhood Spiderman. But this was different. Those weapons were more dangerous than anything he had experienced so far, even in Germany. Obviously _that_ had been an insane adventure as well, but even then, the people he had been up against weren't evil bad guys. Tony Stark himself had said they had just "lost their way".

This... this was the first time he had felt in danger. And he was right to feel that way. The entire building looked like it had gone through a blender.

_I definitely could have died._

* * *

The rest of the day at school, Peter had difficulties focusing on his classes. Ned, being Ned, had dozens of questions about his abilities, and was not being very subtle about asking them. It didn't help that during PE they had to do the "Captain America Challenge"... Ned got sent into a frenzy of questions about the Avengers. He wouldn't even wait for answers. Meanwhile, Peter was trying his best to make his friend be quiet.

"Hey, can I be your man in the chair?"

Peter gave him a puzzled look.

"You know how there's a guy, with a headset, telling the other guy where to go? Like, like if you were in a burning building, I could tell you where to go, because there'd be screens around me, and I could, you know, swivel around, and... 'Cause I'd be your guy in the chair!"

The thought of including Ned in his crime-fighting made Peter's stomach do a belly flop. He couldn't put his friend in danger.

"Ned, I don't need a guy in the chair!"

"Looking good Parker." The coach said as he walked by. Peter realized he had been doing sit-ups non-stop for the past 5 minutes, and should probably appear tired at this point, so he slowed down.

At that moment, the two boys overheard Elizabeth say she had a crush on Spiderman. Before he knew what was going on, Ned blurted out to the entire class that Peter knew Spiderman personnally. That they were _friends_. Everybody stopped what they were doing, and silence fell on the gymnasium. Flash slid down his rope and started swaggering his way towards Peter, obviously unimpressed.

"Yeah, like coach Wilson and Captain America are friends!"

For a second that lasted an eternity, Peter searched for words, for a way to explain the information that Ned had unleashed.

"I uh, I've met him, yeah..." Peter stuttered "A couple of times... But it's, uhm, through the Stark internship." Peter looked back at Ned angrily. "I'm not really supposed to talk about it," he added through clenched teeth

Flash was still making his way towards Peter. "Well, that's awesome. Hey, you know what? Maybe you should invite him to Liz's party. Right?"

"Yeah," Liz nodded, "I'm having people over tonight. You're more than welcome to come."

The rest of the conversation was a haze in Peter's mind, and all he remembered was that he and Ned had somehow been invited to Elizabeth Toome's party.

* * *

When he got home from school, Peter didn't know what part of his day had stressed him out the most. The realization that he could have been zapped into pieces the previous night, or the hours of worrying that someone would overhear Ned's questions, or the fact that he had been invited to a party at Liz's house that evening...

Peter went strait to his room, closed the door, and layed down on the bottom bunk of his bead. After a couple of minutes of rubbing his temples, he got up with a sigh, and lifted the matress up, revealing a battered black and white composition book. He still had some time before May got home.

"Hello old friend... I need some help."

Peter flipped the book open to the next blank page, and started writing.

_September 9th, 2016_

_Ned found out about me yesterday. I don't know how I didn't sense him when I got home, but he was waiting on my bed, and saw me crawl across the ceiling. No coming back from that one... Although to be honest, it actually feels good to have someone to talk about it to (even though he does most of the talkjing). Especially since something new also happened yesterday. Some dudes with Avengers masks were robbing an ATM, so I went to stop them. But they had MASSIVE guns, like, science-fiction level stuff. One of them shot a laser that cut through the entire building, and completely destroyed Mr Delmar's Deli across the street. Thank god he didn't get hit... I tried calling Happy to tell him about this new tech, but he wouldn't listen... AND he told me they're moving upstate! How am I supposed to help the Avengers if they're that far away?_

_And that's not even the craziest thing that's happened in the past 24 hours... I got invited to a party at Liz's place, and found out she has a crush on Spiderman! I feel like my brain is going to explode, I don't know what to do! But Ned has a plan... I guess I'll just roll with it._

Peter put down his pen with a sigh. He closed the journal for a second, hesitated, then opened it again, this time to an older page.

_November 5th, 2015_


	2. Chapter 2

_November 5th, 2015_

Peter rubbed the sleep out of his eyes while he fumbled for the Incredible Hulk alarm clock that had been beeping for the past few minutes.

"There you are," he finally grumbled, and proceded to smash it multiple times against the wall.

"Hulk SMASH!" The alarm said before finally going silent, satisfied with his display of strength.

Peter put on his glasses and got dressed, hesitating for a moment between his "Chemists have all the solutions" and his "Never trust an atom, they make up everything" hoodies, before opting for the latter.

When he came out of his room, he was surprised by the smell of pancakes coming from the kitchen.

"You have time for breakfast?" his uncle Ben asked as he turned off the stove and put the pile of pancakes on the kitchen table.

"Uhhh..." Peter checked his phone. 6:12 AM. "Yeah, barely. What's this? You don't start work for another couple of hours." He sat down and started munching.

"Well I wanted to make sure you weren't going on your special field trip on an empty stomach. 'Most important meal of the day' and whatnot, right?" Ben answered with a hearty smile.

"Actually, that's been debunked. Turns out that was a-" Peter paused. "You know what, nevermind. Thanks Ben."

"So, big day huh? Visiting the Avengers Tower?" Ben sat down across from Peter and served himself a couple of pancakes before adding a drop of maple sirup.

"Yeah!" Peter answered enthusiastically. "Well, I've already been to the museum part dozens of times, but apparently we also get to visit the Research and Development Department! It's a new part of the tour, and normally it's only for university students, so we're really lucky." Peter gulped down his last bite of pancake before checking his phone again.

"Sorry I really gotta go, can't miss the bus from school." He got up, put on his winter coat and backpack and headed for the door.

"Alrighty then! Upwards and onwards you go," Ben smiled. "I got a long shift today, but May will be home when you get back."

"Okay, see you later!" Peter hurried outside and sent a text to Ned before putting his gloves on. _Omw, ETA 5 minutes._

It was still dark out, but at least it hadn't snowed again, so Peter was able to jog to his rendez-vous point with Ned without getting slosh on his pants.

"Hey!" Peter managed, out of breath, when he found Ned waiting for him on the corner of 170th Street and 65th Avenue. They took a minute to do their special handshake before heading on to Midtown High.

"You know, I should totally be exhausted right now, since I woke up at like, 5 AM, but I'm just too excited!" Ned said as they approached the School Bus that would bring them to Manhattan.

"Yeah -"

"I wonder if we're gonna see anything Top Secret?" Ned continued before Peter could answer. "What if one of the Avengers is there? Do you think we could get an autograph? I hope it's Captain America. Or Black Widow. Do you think we'll see the Quinjet?" Ned blabbed on for a while like this, which always made Peter smile.

"Alright everybody, time for a head count!" said Mr Harrington. As the teachers counted everybody, Peter looked around to see how many students had actually shown up for the trip. Since it wasn't a mandatory field day, many of them had decided to skip it. He was disappointed to see that Flash had chosen to come. For some reason, that guy just loved picking on him. He spotted a few other familiar faces from the Academic Decathlon Team, but other than that it was mostly seniors. His heart jumped a beat when he noticed Liz Toomes was standing right behind him, talking to one of her friends about cheerleading practice.

"Fourty four... Fourty five... Fourty six. Okay guys, everybody on the bus, we're leaving in 5 minutes!" Mr Harrigton finally said after his 5th head count.

* * *

The bus ride from Midtown High to Manhattan took roughly a half hour, during which Ned and Peter watched a YouTube video about who would win a fight between San Goku and Thor. They were still arguing about all the things the video had gotten wrong when they got off the bus, a block away from the Avengers Tower.

"And dude, there's no way Goku is faster than Thor. He would just zap him with lightning before -"

"Ned, we're here." Peter interrupted.

No matter how many times he saw the Tower, up close, far away, it didn't matter, he would always be in awe. Sometimes he would see Iron Suits flying around it, doing who-knows-what for Tony Stark. On occasion, he would go onto the roof of his appartment building with his telescope to try and get a glimpse of them taking off. They both stopped for a second to stare at it.

"So cool." they both said under their breath.

The lobby was huge, obviously, and packed with tourists from around the world. Iron Suits and employees would greet them in all kinds of different languages, giving directions to ticket booths and informations about the Tower.

"_Previously named Stark Tower, the Avengers Tower became the Headquarters to the Avengers Initiative in 2012 after the Battle of New York..." _he overheard a suit reciting as the teachers guided them through security. Since they were a school group, they didn't have to go through the excutiatingly long queue Peter usually endured to get in. Even with his Premium Pass, on any given day he would have to wait in line for at least an hour.

"Alright everybody, listen up!" said Ms Warren. "Due to how large our group is, we'll be seperating into 2 groups. One group will start with the Arc Reactor Tour with Mr Cooper and I, and the other will start with the Research and Development Tour with Mr Harrington and Mr Dell. Both groups will meet up at noon for lunch at the Avengers' Museum buffet. Whichever tour you didn't do this morning, that's what you do this afternoon."

Peter and Ned were sorted into Mr Harrington's group, as long as Flash and his fan club, while Liz, Betty Brant and most of the seniors were sent off with Ms Warren.

Their tour guide introduced himself right after that. Mr Williams, a tall, serious looking man with short black hair, tiny square glasses, and a tablet tucked under his arm.

"Sweeeeeet!" squealed Ned. "We get to start with the R&D! Man i'm so pumped."

"Oh man I've been waiting for this for _so_ long!" Peter said.

"Title of your sex tape! Like, in thirty years." Flash retorted, giving Peter a shove that knocked his glasses askew as he walked towards the tour guide for their group. The rest of the students snickered, as they usually did to Flash's quips.

Peter blushed and put his glasses back on correctly before falling in line with the rest of the tour group.

"Man, why can't he leave me alone..." Peter complained to Ned in a whisper.

"I don't know dude, just ignore him, maybe he'll get tired of it one day."

Peter sighed, but as soon as they walked through the _R&D Dept. _doors, he forgot about Flash completely. There was so much going on he could barely focus. The doors opened onto a platform that looked over the entire department. There were people in lab coats everywhere, so busy with their work that they hardly noticed the twenty highschoolers who had just entered. The department was seperated into labs of different sizes, but all the walls and cielings were made of glass, so from where they were standing, they could see everything that was going on. _This must be what fish in an aquarium feel like_, Peter thought to himself.

Looking to his right, Peter saw researchers moving holograms around and writing down equations on whiteboards. On the left, he saw test tubes and erlenmeyers filled with solutions of all different colors. In the back, he saw a lab filled to the cieling with plants. He felt like Mr Jack discovering Christmas. _What's this? What's this? There's color everywhere!_

"If you'll follow me, we'll start with the Chemistry department," the tour guide started as he showed them down the stairs to their left. "As you probably already know, all this has only recently been opened to the public. There's nothing Top Secret going on in these labs, and most of the research is open sourced." Mr Williams paused. "That means you're allowed to take photos."

Everybody immediately rushed to take out their phones (including Mr Harrington and Mr Dell) and started snapping shots of just about everything.

"Now only a few weeks ago, this entire floor was off limits to the public," the tour guide continued. "and some very, _very _Top Secret research was going on..." he smiled at the effect that information had on the students, who all raised their hands. "And that I obviously can't talk to you about." The hands lowered. "Anyway, all the equipment has been moved to a secure site at another Avengers facility, and we can now proudly present more 'public friendly' aspects of our work here." He opened the door to the first lab, right at the bottom of the stairs. "Such as Doctor Wang's work on new, low density, high resistance synthetic fibers. Doctor Wang, would you care to explain more about your team's research?"

Peter listened astutely as Dr Wang explained how they were trying to create a synthetic material with the physical properties of spider silk on an industrial scale. It was rivetting.

"All of this research is open sourced, so anybody across the world can have access to what we've discovered, and potentially start their own research on the subject. One of the perks of not needing funding..."

Peter took photos of everything. The whiteboard, the colorful test tubes, the heat resistance test equipment, Dr Wang's empty cup of coffee... He was so caught up in capturing every detail he possibly could, he didn't notice the tour guide had moved on to the next lab.

"Stop being a dweeb, Parker!" Flash said as he shoved his way past him, knocking Peter's phone out of his hands. Peter cursed as he watched the phone slide under a shelf filled with chemistry equipment.

"Come on Peter!" Ned called from the hall "The next lab is doing research on tomatoes the size of pumpkins!"

"Uh yeah, be right there!" Peter got on his knees to fetch his phone from under the shelf, but couldn't see where it was. He blindly reached under the shelf, waving his arm around until he finally felt it.

"Ow!" Peter pulled his hand back, holding his phone. He looked where he had been hurt, and saw a small spider running up his hand towards his forearm.

"Ahh! Go away!" Peter smacked the arachnid, which dropped to the floor, apparently dead. Then something strange happened. The spider glowed blue, and disappeared for a second.

"What the hell?" Peter slammed his foot down on it for good measure, unsure of what he had just witnessed, then turned towards Dr Wang who was busy on his computer.

"Dr Wang, do you use actual spiders in your research?" He asked anxiously while he pocketed his phone.

"No, no, of course not," Dr Wang answered, looking up from his screen. "Everything we make in this lab is entirely synthetic. When we started, we studied the molecular structure of spider silk, but we're past that now."

"Okay, thanks... I uh, I think I..." Peter stuttered. "You know what, nevermind, I got to catch up with the rest of the group. Thanks again!" And he rushed off to join Ned in the lab with abnormally huge vegetables growing everywhere.

Peter checked his hand, which had started to feel sore, and noticed a colorful bite on his thumb. The sight of it made him feel woozy, and as he approached Ned, his vision started to blur.

"Woah, are you okay?" Ned asked with concern. "You don't look so good man."

Peter didn't want to miss out on a single minute of the visit, so he stood up strait, rubbed his eyes, and tried to focus. "Yeah, yeah I'm... I'm fine..." he managed.

The room around him started to swirl, and as he lost his balance, he grabbed the closest thing to avoid collapsing. Unfortunately, it happened to be a tomato plant that, despite its size, could not bear Peter's weight, and he smashed face first onto the floor.

* * *

Peter opened his eyes. He didn't recognize his surroundings. Everything was envelopped in a blue haze. He tried moving, but couldn't. He heard noises coming from outside, but couldn't make out what they were.

_Where am I?_

Suddenly, everything sharpened. He was standing on the leaf of a potted plant in an empty office. And he was a spider. Looking outside the window, he saw he was maybe 80 stories high. And outside, a sight he thought he'd never see again.

_Oh my god, it's the Chitauri! They're back!_

Right above him, the giant blue laser beam that had terrorized millions of people several years ago was ripping through the sky. Chitauri soldiers zoomed by, shooting their destructive lasers everywhere. A Leviathan floated by, unleashing havoc on the streets below.

Suddenly, a blast of blue light. The laser was gone, and so were Peter's surroundings.

* * *

A new scene appeared. Once again, it took a few moments before Peter could focus. This time he was inside a giant glass cube... Or rather, the spider was inside a terrarium. Around him, men and women in lab coats were fiddling with sophisticated electronic devices.

_Wait... this is the Avengers lab!_

Still unable to control his actions, Peter the spider focused on the desk a few feet away, before... _Pop! _He teleported against the glass wall. Peter felt like he should have gone further, but something was blocking him.

"Subjet 43B's known abilities so far consist of teleportation, quantum phasing, and small bursts of psychokinetic energy. The containment module is perfectly functional."

Peter saw a stout bald man with a bushy mustache talking into a dictaphone on the other side the the glass. As he studied the man's face, his surroundings dissolved once more.

* * *

"Alright people let's get going! Label it, box it, move it!"

Peter was still inside his terrarium, which had not changed at all. Outside of it however, most of the devices from his previous vision had disappeared, and people with brown vests were carrying metal boxes of various shapes and sizes towards the far end of the lab. Suddenly the floor beneath his eight legs shook as a giant hand picked up his "containment module" and placed it on a cart.

Peter the spider hesitated for a second, then focused on a spot on the ground a few feet away before... _Pop! _This time he didn't hit the glass, and appeared on the exact spot on the floor where he had focused. Without a second to lose, the eight-legged creature hurried through a small crack between two desks, and into darkness.

Peter opened his eyes once more, and immediately blocked out the neon lights above him.

* * *

_My hand... Great, I'm human again! What the hell was that?_

He sat up and looked around briefly before concluding that he was in some sort of infirmary. At that moment, the door opened, and in came his aunt May, followed by Mr Harrington and a tall blonde woman in a lab coat.

"Peter! Are you okay?" May rushed to his side and took him in her arms. "The school called me and said you had fainted during your field trip! We have to get you to the hospital right away!"

"Woah, hold on May, I'm not... I'm fine, really..." Peter stuttered, still squinting because of the stark neon lighting in the room. He looked at the doctor standing in the doorway. "Right doc? It was just all the emotion... Nothing to worry about?"

The doctor took a look at her clipboard before nodding in his direction. "Nothing out of the ordinary as far as I can tell from these results. You were out for a solid hour, and your aunt gave us permission to run some blood tests before she arrived," she explained.

"Right..." Peter sighed. "See May, I'm fine! I bet I can go right back in and -"

"Oh certainly not, Mr Parker!" interrupted Mr Harrington. "I don't care how much better you feel, I'm not letting you scare me like that again. You go home and get some rest." Peter had never heard him talk in such a stern voice before, and didn't dare argue.

"He's right," said May. "I'm bringing you home. Sorry Peter."

Peter suppressed a groan, because he knew they were right. Even though it meant missing out on the most amazing field trip of his life, he had to get home and figure out what had happened to him. He checked his hand and noticed the bite mark had disappeared. _Seriously. What. The. Hell._

May filled out some forms before leading him outside. It was only when he saw a hotdog stand on the corner that he noticed how famished he was. After ordering four hotdogs in front of a wide-eyed aunt May, they made their way to her car, and she drove them back home. Peter had to switch between reassuring May, who still wasn't convinced he was fine, and reassuing Ned, who had left him roughly a hundred texts, clearly in a state of utter panic for his friend's well-being.

When they finally got home, Peter felt exhausted again, and was kind of glad he was going to spend the rest of the day resting. He thanked May once more before heading to his room and throwing himself on his bed with a thud. But before closing his eyes, he recovered his journal from under his matress, and started writing.

_November 5th, 2015_

_Man, I have no idea what happened today, but it was wayyy weird..._

* * *

_Alright! That's my take on how Peter got bit... This time not by a "radioactive spider", but by a tesseract infused one! I felt it made more sense. Stay tuned for what happens next! And don't forget to leave a comment, I love feedback :) Cheers!_


	3. Chapter 3

**_September 9th 2016_**

* * *

Peter looked up from his journal as he heard the appartment door open. He quickly slid it back under his mattress before greeting May with a warm hug. As soon as he told her about Liz's party, she went into full-panic mode.

"Okay, what do you need? Are your shirts ironed? Do you want me to cut your hair? I'll definitely drive you there..."

"May it's... it's just a party, not a gala, okay? Can we just... chill?" His voice cracked a little.

May studied Peter for a few seconds. "Okay, I understand, you're nervous and I'm not helping, am I? You go get ready, and I'll get started on dinner, deal?"

"Deal," Peter answered with a sigh of relief.

* * *

On the way to the party they picked up Ned, who was wearing a fedora for the occasion.

"Ned, some hats wear men. You wear that hat!" May told him.

"Yeah. It gives me confidence," Ned confessed with a smile.

Peter was too nervous to follow their conversation though. He was staring strait at the house, thinking about Ned's "plan" and how much he was going to hate it. The house was huge, and he could see that dozens of people were already there, talking, eating, drinking, and dancing.

They finally got out of the car and entered the house, where they were "greeted" by Michelle Jones.

"I can't believe you guys are at this lame party," she sighed. It genuinely looked like she was disappointed at them for showing up.

"But... You're here too," Ned responded, confused.

"Am I?" she asked, squinting at them for a brief second, before walking off, leaving the two boys with puzzled looks on their faces.

That's when Liz appeared, and Peter's eyes lit up while his heart did a backflip. For a few seconds he went on autopilot mode, unable to think strait for himself. Liz greeted them, clearly surprised they had made it, but also genuinely happy they had. She told them to help themselves to food and drinks before running off to do damage control. Some guy had smashed a lamp while trying to juggle with some pineapples.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Ned asked Peter. "She's here, spider it up!" he urged.

Peter finally broke out of his stupor and managed to start breathing again.

"No. No, no, no. I can't... I cannot do this. Spider-Man is not a party trick, okay? Look, I'm just gonna be myself." Peter was imagining a million scenarios where Ned's plan would go down in flames. He couldn't bring himself to using Spider-Man for anything other than helping people.

Ned sighed. "Peter, no one wants that," he admitted.

"Dude." His feelings were hurt. He started to walk off and look for Liz, hoping he would manage to gather the strength to talk to her. That's when Flash Thompson, who was deejaying for the night, got everybody's attention.

"Penis Parker! So where's your pal Spider-Man? Let me guess: In Canada with your imaginary girlfriend?" Everybody laughed while Flash used his dashboard to turn his DJ setup into a comedy club.

"Okay, that's it. I can't let this happen forever," Peter told Ned before heading outside. "I'll be back in five minutes."

"Sweet! I'll wait for you over there." Ned pointed at the bay window at the far end of the house.

* * *

Peter jumped onto the roof of the guest house where nobody could see him, and took off his clothes, revealing his Spider-Suit beneath them. He tried not to think too hard about the fact that Liz's parents owned a _guest house_. He started talking to himself, trying to find what he should say when he would appear at the party as Spîder-Man, while at the same time thinking about how stupid this plan was. Spider-Man wouldn't just show up at a party in the suburbs. Why would he? What if somebody recognized his voice? Why should he need to rely on Spider-Man to be able to impress Liz? Why don't people want him to be himself..?

As all these questions and more buzzed around his head, he spotted a bright blue light in the distance. _An explosion? _He thought, before immediately putting on his mask and swinging his way through the street as fast as he could towards the source of the blue light.

_Sorry Ned, this might be important_.

As he got close to where he thought the explosion had happened, Peter tried to listen for voices in the woods. Luckily, another explosion happened, under a bridge nearby.

_Okay, this is definitely important._

Peter reached the bridge and stuck to a pillar, hiding in the darkness to figure out what was happening. There appeared to be three men under the bridge; one of them was rummaging through the back of a van filled with what seemed to be more high tech weapons, like the ones from the ATM attack. The two others were discussing casually. By what Peter made out of the conversation, this was some sort of arms deal. The man on the left looked nervous, and Peter guessed he was the buyer.

Suddenly, Peter's phone started yodeling.

_Note to self, put phone on silent mode while investigating creepy arms dealers in the middle of the night._

One of the men pulled out a gun, and aimed at the buyer, whose hands went strait in the air.

_Oh no, now I've done it._

Peter jumped down from his pillar.

"Hey, if you're gonna shoot anybody, shoot me!"

The armed man turned to face him, unimpressed by his bravery. "Aight."

_Too slow!_

Peter shot a web and pulled the gun out of the man's hand and started dashing towards them to take them out. But before he knew what had happened, he got smashed in the face by what felt like a truck at full speed. The blow sent him flying backwards several yards, and by the time he shook it off, the van was driving off in one direction, while the buyer drove off in a car in the opposite direction.

_Follow the weapons._

Peter used a web to latch onto the doors of the van, which started dragging him through the streets. A blast from inside the vehicle sent one of doors flying. Another one barely missed Peter, creating a hole in the pavement.

_This is SO much less fun than water skiing! _Peter thought, before smashing into a brick mailbox and detaching from the van.

"Great. Guess I'm gonna have to take a shortcut."

He started sprinting through the suburbs, crashing through backyards and frightening the entire neighborhood.

He finally caught up with the van at an intersection a few blocks further, and as he jumped onto it, he was snatched mid-air by something huge.

"What the hell?!" he yelled, looking up. Two bright green demon eyes stared back at him, and for the second time that week, Spider-Man felt fear creep down his spine. The creature soared upwards, and in mere seconds, the entire city was a mile beneath them. Peter could sense the air getting thin, but before he could react, the built in parachute in his suit opened, ripping Peter from the creature's grasp.

And he fell. Entangled in the parachute, he plumetted towards the ground, spiralling out of control before hitting water, knocking the wind out of his lungs.

_Oh my god, thank you East River!_

The parachute surrounded him completely, and Peter was blind. As he struggled with the chute, he had no idea which way was up or down. He held his breath, but he was sure he was about to drown.

_Am I?_

His heard was spinning from the lack of oxygen when he felt something pick him up and lift him out of the water. Looking behind him, he recognized Iron Man, and passed out.

* * *

Peter silently climbed through his bedroom window and closed it behind him, careful not to wake up May. They had told her Ned's dad would bring them home from the party, and Peter assumed she would be asleep by now.

He hid his suit and the humming purple piece of alien tech he had found, then sat on his bed with a sigh.

_How am I supposed to be the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man when the neighborhood has THIS in it?_

Tony's words were stuck in his head. "It's never too early to start thinking about college." How could he even consider going to college, with all that had been going on? People were counting on Spider-Man! On him! How did everything become so complicated?

Peter reached under his mattress for his journal once again. He flipped it open with another sigh.

* * *

**_November 6th, 2015_**

_Okay, things are still weird. When I woke up this morning, I smashed my alarm clock into the wall. Like, SMASHED. To pieces. And some of the pieces suck to my hand! Oh, and I made a hole in the wall. Also, my glasses aren't working. I mean, my eyes are working. I mean, somehow, I don't need my glasses anymore. _

_I don't know what's going on, but May said I should stay at home for the day, just in case I still feel sick, and I think it's for the best. I need to figure out what's going on. Oh, and those spider dreams happened again last night. And I don't think they were just dreams... So while May and Ben are at work, I'm going to do some experimenting._

Peter closed his journal, and searched his desk for a new one. "Might as well do things right while I'm at it," he said out loud as he wrote_ Trial one: Strength _on the first page.

_Experiment one: push-ups. Expected result: limit of 20-25 repetitions._

Peter then got on the floor and started doing push-ups. He immediately noticed something was different. _This is too easy! _he thought, surprised. When he reached a hundred, he still didn't feel even remotely tired. He put a hand behind his back, and did another hundred.

"Woah. This is nuts!" he exclaimed, still going strong.

After he reached three hundred without breaking a sweat, he decided to stop. He was going to need to step up his game if he wanted to test his new limits.

_Obtained result: 300 repetitions without effort. Limit unknown. _He wrote down in his new scientific journal. _Hypothesis: Spider bite confered enhanced strength. Further testing required._

"Okay, sorry May, but I gonna need to leave the house for a while..." he said to the empty appartment. He prepared a couple of sandwiches, put them and the journal into his backpack, grabbed his coat, and headed outside.

To test his agility, he jumped down the stairs one flight at a time, landing gracefully between each one. Still confused, but definitely excited, he opened the door to the building and strepped out onto the street. And his head exploded.

The light, the sounds, the smells, the breeze, everything was so intense that he could barely stand it. He took a step back in confusion, closed his eyes, and put his hands over his ears.

It was like all of his senses had been dialed up to a thousand, except that his brain wasn't ready for all that information at once. His head started to spin, and he took another step back. A taxi honked half a block away.

"Ahhhhh!" he yelled, clutching his ears as if they were going to explode. He managed to open his eyes, squinting into the winter morning sunlight. The white patches of snow reflecting the sun burned his eyes.

_This is too much! _he thought as he rushed back in and slammed the door.

Back in the appartment, he opened his scientific journal and wrote:

_Spider bite has also confered hightened senses. Consequences unclear. Further testing required._

"Okay, that was horrible," he said to himself. "But what's a minor setback to a scientist?" He went into his room and fetched his headphones and sunglasses, and put them on.

"Alright, let's try again," he said as he approached his window. He opened it, and braced himself for another blow to his senses... but this time it was a lot better. The accessories helped: he could keep his eyes open without tearing up, and the noise cancelling from his headphones prevented his head from splitting in two.

"Nice! Baby steps," he smiled. He stayed for a few minutes with his head outside the window, breathing deeply, trying to dial down his senses to a minimum, before finally taking off the headphones, and then the sunglasses.

_Alright, round two._

He closed the window, put the headphones and sunglasses in his backpack just in case, and headed back outside. His new sensitivity took some getting used to, but by the time he reached the park a few blocks away, he felt pretty confident his brain wouldn't melt if a car honked too close to him.

The park was empty, being a school day, which was convenient for Peter. He started looking for something heavy to pick up, and settled for a small boulder, which he guessed was at least a hundred pounds.

_Experience two: weight lifting. Expected result: unknown._

Peter squatted to get a good grip on the boulder and... lifted it strait over his head. He was so startled that he let go of it, sending the rock flying several yards behind him, where it smashed into a small oak.

"Oh shi-" Peter exclaimed as the tree collapsed with a large thud. But that gave him an idea.

He walked up to the oak, looking around him to make sure nobody was watching. Judging by its size, it had to weigh at least several tonnes.

_There's no way this works..._

Peter grabbed the trunk, and heaved it up. For the first time, the effort strained him, but he was still able to lift it with relative ease.

_OH MY GOD I HAVE SUPER POWERS._

As the realisation hit him, he let go of the trunk, which thudded into the ground for a second time. His eyes were wide, and his heart was racing. Not because of the physical prowess he had just achieved, but because he was having a panic attack.

"What the hell, this can't be real! There's no way!" He backed away from the tree as if it were dangerous. "I've got super powers!" he said out loud this time, and as he did, his legs gave way beneath him, and he fell flat on his butt. He reached for his journal, but noticed that some tree bark was stuck to his hands. He tried shaking it off, but it wouldn't budge.

"Why is this so sticky?"

He managed to get rid of the bark by rubbing his hands together, expecting his fingers to be covered in sap or something, but there was nothing there.

"Wait, am_ I _sticky?" he glanced at a nearby tree - one that was still standing this time – and had an idea for his next experiment. But first, he picked up his journal and wrote:

_Obtained result: at least 4 tonnes. No further signs of hallucinations._

He then walked to the plane tree, and started climbing. He didn't use any grips or hold branches, he just stuck his hand against the trunk and pulled himself up, relying solely on his newly discovered stickiness. When he got to about fifteen feet above the ground, he backflipped off his branch, and landed neatly on his feet next to his journal.

_This is insane._

He spent the next two hours running around the park to test his speed and stamina, keeping track of all of his results in his journal. By the time he was done, he was drenched in sweat and very, _very_ hungry, even after eating the sandwiches he had made, so he decided to head back home.

On his way, he decided to conduct an experiment on his newly hightened senses as well. While walking, he wrote:

_Trial 3: Hearing. Experiment one: maximum distance. _

He didn't bother writing the expected result, because he had no idea what he was capable of anymore. He looked down the street when he exited the park, and noticed a hot-dog stand roughly a hundred yards away. He focused for a second, and was easily able to hear the man ordering two hot-dogs with sourcrout and mustard, which made his stomach rumble. He decided to do one last test before going home, and closed his eyes. This time he didn't focus on anything particular, but rather tried to absorb everything he could around him. At first, it was utter cacophony, but after a moment, Peter managed to slowly block out the sounds of car horns, garbage trucks, jackhammers, helicopters, and only be left with the voices of people walking down the streets around him. He caught pieces of conversation here and there, but it was still pretty chaotic, like when a teacher leaves the classroom for a few minutes to fetch some photocopies.

"_NO!"_a woman's voice cried.

Peter's eyes snapped open. He had heard fear in that voice, he was sure of it. Without thinking twice, he started sprinting in the direction the cry had come from. He ran accross the street, turned left, narrowly dodged a taxi door opening in front of him, all the while focusing on the distressed voice that was getting closer.

"_Please, no!"_

Peter's heart was pounding, sharing the terror he felt in the woman's voice. He reached a parking lot and stopped, unsure of where to go next. He closed his eyes once more, focusing as hard as he could to find the voice amidst the New York chaos around him. He heard a whimper, and dashed into an alley on his right. There she was. A tall, dark haired man was holding both her wrists above her head against the wall with one hand, and toying with a knife under her chin with the other. Peter's eyes went wide, and before he knew what he was doing, he slammed into the aggressor, sending him flying. The man smashed against a dumpster, and slumped to the ground, knocked out cold.

Peter faced the woman, who met his gaze for a brief second. Her eyes were wide and unblinking, as tears streamed down her face. Her lipstick was smeared accross her cheek, and Peter noticed her shirt had been ripped open. Before he could ask her if she was alright, she snatched up her handbag and ran away, clutching it against her chest.

Peter turned around and looked at the unconscious thug, wondering what to do.

_911._

By the time the police showed up, the man had been tied up and gagged, a note on his chest read _"I am a criminal, please put me in jail."_and Peter was back in his room, nervously tapping his pen on the empty page of his diary.


End file.
